Rush University Medical Center has joined a new worldwide clinical trial to test an investigational drug for the treatment of the coronavirus.

Rush joins Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago as leading research hospitals testing a drug for a disease that has no approved treatment.

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The drug, remdesivir, was used in the past to treat Ebola, and has shown promise in animals for treating SARS and MERS, federal health officials said. It is believed to work by blocking the virus’s ability to reproduce.

People who test positive for the virus will not be allowed to participate in the trial unless they are hospitalized with moderate to severe COVID-19 with rattling sounds when breathing, known as rales, abnormal chest X-rays, and a need for supplemental oxygen or mechanical ventilation.

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To qualify, patients must be hospitalized with moderate to severe disease and be receiving oxygen or be on a ventilator, have pneumonia or have been diagnosed with lung abnormalities, officials said.

In the trial, patients will be given either remdesivir or an inactive solution intravenously for five to 10 days. To prevent bias in deciding whether it works, neither the patients nor the medical professionals will know which is being given. The study will track how long the patients are sick, whether they have to be intubated, and whether they are bothered by side effects such as headache or nausea.

Rush University System for Health reported 135 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Health officials expect the number to increase greatly in April.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is overseeing the test.

The drug was developed by Gilead Sciences in Foster City, California, which has given the drug to about 1,700 patients on a case-by-case basis, and recently ramped up production of remdesivir in response to high demand. A rush of participants will expand the trial from its original 440 participants.